And It Feels Like A Win
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and ninety-two: As Will returns to Lima and to McKinley, all he wants to do is to see her...


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 28th cycle. Now cycle 29!_

**TOP 16, TAKE 2: **_Okay so a couple cycles back, I did my second 'top of Glee at the moment' cycle. Now since I was still in university and such at the time, those were planned a while back, before the second half of the season every started. This made it that by the time that cycle rolled around I realized that some things had changed... Things were added, removed, bumped up... Point is it didn't really reflect where I was anymore. So I decided 'what the heck, I'll do another one ASAP!' And so here we are :) This is my revised Top 16 (of course I HAD to plan before the finale, so there are still a couple things missing like Samcedes, Unholy Trinity, etc, but let's assume they're there ;) They'll get some love in coming cycles ;)) So off we go!  
><strong>Coming in at number thirteen...<strong>_

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><p><strong>"And It Feels Like A Win"<br>Will/Emma **

He knew he would have a lot of questions to answer to her, as soon as she realized it all. That they had lost, first, and then that he had come back even though he'd been meant to stay… All he hoped was that she would look past that, to see not necessarily the bigger picture but the silver lining around it… They could have this now, a summer together… There was no way to know what would come of it, but after the year they had had, everything that stood in their way… They had this chance now to start fresh and, maybe, get back all that they'd lost.

When he walked into McKinley that morning, the first thing he did was to go by her office, only to find it empty. He could see her jacket, so he knew she'd arrived… He went looking for her and eventually… There she was, of all places in the Glee room. She looked to be reorganizing the sheet music, and despite himself he had to ask... "What are you doing?" She startled and stood back up at once, only to jump again when she turned and saw him standing there.

"Will! I-I was just trying to make everything nice for the subst… What are you doing here, why aren't you in New York?" she asked then, blinking. He hesitated, looking around, then back to her.

"Because I realized that… at least for now… my place is here, not there. My place is here, with these kids… and others…" he stayed vague, not wanting to get ahead of himself. She breathed out, nervous.

"Is that so…" The shock was starting to wear off now, something he guessed as she carried on. "No, but… we talked about this, remember?"

"Emma, I did it," he cut in, and she frowned, clueless. "I got up on that stage, and I sang, and it… it was wonderful. It was everything I dreamed it would be…" He paused, breathing in. "And then I went back and I stood in front of those thirteen kids and… That jolt that I felt, when I was on that stage, I felt it even stronger coming from all of them. This thing we've got, all of us, it's not over."

"U-us, you mean… you and the kids?" she hesitated, staring back at him.

"I've got one more year with them, and I couldn't imagine letting anyone else see them through it… especially now that Nationals slipped out of our hands," he felt his face sadden just remembering the sadness and disappointment in his kids' faces.

"Yes, I saw that," she nodded. "But… 12th place!" she smiled. "That's great!" He smiled back at her; he'd missed this, with her.

"That's excellent," he agreed. "And next year we'll show them what we're really made of."

"I know you will," she bowed her head, then still with her little smile. "So you sang on that stage, uh?"

"I did," he beamed with pride. "Emma, it was… It was everything I thought it would be, even more. There was no one in the audience, but… it was still just… magical," he recalled.

"And uh… How did April take it?" she asked, brushing at her hair.

"She took it… pretty well," he nodded to himself.

"So she was drunk?"

"Little bit," he turned his nod up to her. "She'll be fine. If there's one thing I know, it's that April Rhodes can bounce back." He saw this look on Emma's face like she was biting back a comment there, but he didn't ask about it. Now that they'd gone through those two subjects, the competition, and his return, it left the conversation field wide open for… silence. They stared at one another, neither ready to even begin some sort of dialogue on what they knew needed to be said… What now? What would happen with them? "Do you… have any plans this summer?" Will finally asked.

"Well, normally I would spend a lot of that time kind of… making sure no bugs will get inside my house, clean the fans thoroughly because I couldn't have an air conditioner that would let anything in, but…" she stopped herself, looked at him with a smile. "But I think this year might be the first time I look forward to summer in a long time." He had to smile at that.

"You're telling me you never go to the beach?"

"Oh, no, I couldn't, I mean the sand alone is probably filled with various kinds of germs and bodily…" she gestured rather than going on, but then she nodded. "I might be convinced to try it out though…" she opened, and he took it.

"I'd be happy to accompany you."

"I can't promise I'll make it very far," she insisted, but he was ready for that, too.

"You say the word and I'll get you out of there. I'll even carry you on my back so your feet don't have to touch that sand," he smirked, seeing the pleased look on her face, and he had to say it. "I've missed this," he took a step forward, opening his arms as though to say 'is it alright if I hug you?' and she consented, letting him wrap those arms around her. She did the same, feeling the same thing he did… relief, hope… Even if there was some concern, considering the year they'd had, the hope in that moment was big enough to cover it up, like it didn't exist.

"What about you?" she asked, still at ease with the scent of him so near. "What are you going to do this summer?" They pulled back, and he looked down at her.

"Actually, I was thinking when April gets her show on the road…"

"You almost said 'on the Rhodes', didn't you?" Emma slipped into his sentence, making him smile.

"… I might want to head back up to New York and check it out. I'm wondering now if maybe you would like to join me… As friends," he promised. She brightened up like an anxious kid.

"I've never been there before," she admitted.

"Well, I think New York City is ready for you, Emma Pillsbury."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******

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><p><strong><strong><strong>PS: I'm going to work to find a way to make a list available of the various series, I just need to find a way to make the link available, since this site seems to have an issue with putting links to stuff ;)<strong>****


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